44 EELATION OF UNSTRATIFIED TO STRATIFIED ROCKS. 



fied by heat : or whether they have been produced, (as was 

 maintained by Werner) by chemical precipitation from a 

 fluid, having other powers of solution than those possessed 

 by the waters of the present ocean. It is of little impor- 

 tance to our present purpose, whether the non-appearance 

 of animals and vegetables in these most ancient strata was 

 caused by the high temperature of the waters of the ocean, 

 in which they are mechanically deposited; or by the com- 

 pound nature and uninhabitable condition of a primeval 

 fluid, holding their materials in solution. All observers 

 admit that the strata were formed beneath the water, and 

 have been subsequently converted into dry land: and what- 

 ever may have been the agents that caused the movements 

 of the gross unorganized materials of the globe; we find 

 sufficient evidence of prospective wisdom and design, in the 

 benefits resulting from these obscure and distant revolutions, 

 to future races of terrestrial creatures, and more especially 

 to Man.* 



• In describing- g-eological phenomena, it is impossible to avoid the use 

 of theoretical terms, and the provisional adoption of many theoretical 

 opinions as to the manner in which these phenomena have been pro- 

 duced. From among the various and conflicting' theories that have been 

 proposed to explain the most difficult and complicated problems of Geo- 

 log}', I select those which appear to carry with them the higliest degree of 

 probability; but as results remain the same from whatever cause they have 

 originated, the force of inferences from these results will be unaffected by 

 changes that may arise in our opinions as to the physical causes by which 

 these have been produced. As in estimating the merits of the highest pro- 

 ductions of human art it is not requisite to understand perfectly tlie nature 

 of the machinery by which the work has been effected in order to appre- 

 ciate the skill and talent of the artist by whom it was contrived; so our 

 minds may be fully impressed with a perception of the magnificent results 

 of creative intelligence, which are visible in tlie phenomena of nature, al- 

 though we can but partially comprehend the meclianlsm that has been in- 

 strumental to their production; and although the full development of the 

 workings of the material instruments by which they were effc.'cted, has not 

 yet been, and perhaps may never be, vouchsafed to the prying curiosity of 

 man. 



